nosleepdemon.1368

Yeah I've often wondered the same. The skins are quite boring and if there is a longbow variant, then the shortbow skin is *always* a cut down version of it.

> @"Manasa Devi.7958" said:

> > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > > @"Lelongue.1320" said:

> > > > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > > > If you think w1z2 is hard, wait till you see w2z2. It's, ooh, about a 15 minute clear if you are *speed running*. The best I ever got on w2z2 was down to a single death, it's just faaaar too long of a map and SO MANY ways to die. W1 in general is about twice as easy as W2... So have fun while it lasts :P

> > >

> > > Isn't W2Z3 much longer even, I'm doing W2Z1 and W2Z2 trib for all the weapons this year leaving W2Z3 for next year. For W2Z2 I got it down to 20 minutes but the two times I did W2Z3 It at leats took me an hour, I know it can be faster, but by no means do I believe I (emphasis on me) can do it nowhere near in 20 minutes.

> >

> > I found it to be slightly faster when not including the boss fight, which adds an inescapable couple of minutes to the end. It is however a lot more pleasant than z2, with a more consistent difficulty and relatively fewer moments that require pixel perfect jumps. I found having to duke the trib cloud in the middle of z2 extremely infuriating, I died at least once to it on every single run I did. Z3 has a few similar moments, but you don't get cornered by the buggers in quite the same way. Also no assassins. Holy hell.

>

> I also find W2Z3 a lot more demanding than W2Z2. Other than the annoying tribulation cloud in the building where you need to move the 4 blocks, I don't die much in Z2. The assassins are totally predictable. It's rare that one gets a hit in.

>

> My issue with Z3 is the ice. I hate having to check myself the whole time. It breaks my stride and it takes the fun out of the whole zone. In Z2 I breeze through the landscape without a care. There's hardly even a difficult jump in it.

The ice is frustrating, especially near the start with the trib cloud chasing you. I found that there were certain conditions where you could suddenly gain momentum and go flying into spikes or off a ledge. I forget exactly what it was, I think touching walls could do it. I ended up jumping a lot and applying "reverse thrust" to maintain control. I did find the assassins to be more annoying, I'd end up with my hp slowly wittled down over the course of the map.

> @"Lelongue.1320" said:

> > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > If you think w1z2 is hard, wait till you see w2z2. It's, ooh, about a 15 minute clear if you are *speed running*. The best I ever got on w2z2 was down to a single death, it's just faaaar too long of a map and SO MANY ways to die. W1 in general is about twice as easy as W2... So have fun while it lasts :P

>

> Isn't W2Z3 much longer even, I'm doing W2Z1 and W2Z2 trib for all the weapons this year leaving W2Z3 for next year. For W2Z2 I got it down to 20 minutes but the two times I did W2Z3 It at leats took me an hour, I know it can be faster, but by no means do I believe I (emphasis on me) can do it nowhere near in 20 minutes.

I found it to be slightly faster when not including the boss fight, which adds an inescapable couple of minutes to the end. It is however a lot more pleasant than z2, with a more consistent difficulty and relatively fewer moments that require pixel perfect jumps. I found having to duke the trib cloud in the middle of z2 extremely infuriating, I died at least once to it on every single run I did. Z3 has a few similar moments, but you don't get cornered by the buggers in quite the same way. Also no assassins. Holy hell.

> @"Tenrai Senshi.2017" said:

> > @"AliamRationem.5172" said:

> > > @"Tenrai Senshi.2017" said:

> > > Eh, I'm not a fan of Tribulation Mode myself, and haven't bothered to complete it in the few years it has existed. It's not just a case of being hard (I don't mind challenging content in itself), it's a case of being unfair. The mode expects you to find a path through the worlds via a process of trial and error, as opposed to skill. You die, die, and die again until you discern the correct route, which isn't my idea of fun.

> > >

> > > Sure, you could watch guides and learn it that way, but to me that kinda defeats the point. It's basically GW2's version of "Unfair Mario", and while some people might enjoy that, I am not one of them. I would have preferred it if they gave some visual clues for what path you're meant to take, even if they are subtle, but that isn't the case.

> > >

> > > That being said, I also wouldn't ask ANet to change it. It is what it is, whether you love or hate it, and changing it now would undermine the effort that some players have already put into it, even if the change is something as simple as putting in easier alternative routes for players who can't pass certain obstacles. To me, it's somewhat inconsequential regardless. There are only a few odd achievements tied to Tribulation mode, and no exclusive rewards or titles from what I recall, so it's no real loss if you don't manage to complete it. It's simply a case of deciding whether or not it's a task you're willing to undertake purely for the satisfaction of completing it, and if the answer is yes, then you'll have to bear with the pain that comes with the process.

> >

> > It's both, really. Trial and error to feel out the trap locations, but some degree of skill as well for the technical/precision jumping required. The lava pool the OP is having issues with is a perfect example. The trap in this case is pretty obvious. But for most players it will take some practice to figure this part out. Much of tribulation mode is that way, and it isn't something most players will find enjoyable. That's generally how hard modes go in games!

>

> Yes, it is a bit of both, but it's the trial and error part that puts me off. If the content demands precision and skill (a good comparison is the Clock Tower), then that's fine by me, because, as I said, I don't mind difficulty in and of itself. But I do mind artificial difficulty created through unfair mechanics, such as hidden obstacles with no real visual clues as to their location. Also, I wouldn't say that this is a good example of how hard modes are in general these days. Platformers in particular would usually put more emphasis on timing, rhythm and reaction speed than on a hidden path/trap mechanic in order to introduce difficulty.

Clocktower is trivially easy. I'm sorry if Tribulation mode is too hard for you, but there is very little trial and error involved once you figure out the traps. There is, in fact, a fair bit of *rhythm* to many of the levels, and you're frequently required to move in time to the environment or creature attacks. After clearing each level 16 times for the infusions, I had all but w2z2 on a reliable farm (and videos too, but there are plenty better ones on YT). You just need to practice, or watch a guide.

If you think w1z2 is hard, wait till you see w2z2. It's, ooh, about a 15 minute clear if you are *speed running*. The best I ever got on w2z2 was down to a single death, it's just faaaar too long of a map and SO MANY ways to die. W1 in general is about twice as easy as W2... So have fun while it lasts :P

Revenant.

Haha only kidding.

> @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > > @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> > > > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > > > > @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> > > > > The stairs are terrible, but so are all the low res textures in this game. Sometimes they just resize a small texture for something bigger and then it looks even worse. This game needs a 50 GB ultra HD texture pack.

> > > >

> > > > No. No it does not.

> > >

> > > Why not? The game file size is tiny compared to modern games while having a massive game world. Just shows how low quality textures and models are. They should definitely offer better quality settings.

> >

> > It shows that they don't have a bazillion texture maps for each material, sure. It doesn't mean that the textures or other graphical assets are in any way low quality. Upscaling all of that would be a huge undertaking, not to mention that the average gw2 player's rig might not even support it. If it were going to happen, I imagine it would be done for a new expansion, but not for the old world. In the mean time, there are third party tools like reshade that let you throw in all of the vomit inducing bloom and SSAO you like, which bring the game fairly close to a AAA title without the additional 100gb download.

>

> This screenshot was made just now at a non selected place I happened to be by chance. Maximum settings (1440p with supersampling) of course. If this is in no way low quality I do not want to see what low quality is for you.

> >! Make sure to resize it to its full size

> >! 

> It just looks plain terrible. Granted the new maps (HoT and later) look a bit better, but a trained eye still sees all the sacrifices Anet made.

>

> I tried various Reshade presets. They all made the game look even worse lol

Hahah well OK, yeah, that isn't great. Actually in the beta those building textures made me puke. Also the trees that looked like tall stalks with some weird multicoloured water painting texture on them outside Divinity's Reach... Ouch. But *in general* it's a good looking game. As you said, the expacs are of a higher quality definitely.

> @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > > @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> > > The stairs are terrible, but so are all the low res textures in this game. Sometimes they just resize a small texture for something bigger and then it looks even worse. This game needs a 50 GB ultra HD texture pack.

> >

> > No. No it does not.

>

> Why not? The game file size is tiny compared to modern games while having a massive game world. Just shows how low quality textures and models are. They should definitely offer better quality settings.

It shows that they don't have a bazillion texture maps for each material, sure. It doesn't mean that the textures or other graphical assets are in any way low quality. Upscaling all of that would be a huge undertaking, not to mention that the average gw2 player's rig might not even support it. If it were going to happen, I imagine it would be done for a new expansion, but not for the old world. In the mean time, there are third party tools like reshade that let you throw in all of the vomit inducing bloom and SSAO you like, which bring the game fairly close to a AAA title without the additional 100gb download.

> @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> The stairs are terrible, but so are all the low res textures in this game. Sometimes they just resize a small texture for something bigger and then it looks even worse. This game needs a 50 GB ultra HD texture pack.

No. No it does not.

> @"Yseron.8613" said:

> A 15 mins test. I did not use a script for procedural generation but instead I invented a trick on the fly that consist in subdividing a plane so that you got twice as many edges than the number of steps needed, then you select 1 edge every 2 edges, you translate the entire selection and all the steps are instantly created. I dont have the game camera settings so it's really a rough approximation. For use in a video game you would just have to reduce the ramps subdivisions in the modifiers stack (or increase it if you got the Zehtuka 9000 graphic card).

> 

> [imgur](https://i.imgur.com/Jta1kkv.jpg)

I'd poke fun at your presumption that a gamer could do a better job than the developer, but you actually clearly did...

I was looking at some of the cool merch in the store, because I'm a fan of SAB and would love to support it. I noticed though, and this might just be the cynicist in me - I could have sworn at one point the merch carried the slogan "Super Adventure Box", but now it would appear that the word "Festival" has been slapped rather lazily on top of the word "Box". So much so, that you can still see the outline of the three letters behind the "Festival" banner. Now I know, with #Stairgate happening, I don't want to stoke the fires unnecessarily but, I'd rather have the original designs back or at least a choice between them.


> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> The drop rates of the armor box types is intended, according to ANet. They want coats to drop less often than any of the others. Accordingly, it's hard to imagine that they'd provide a way to change one type into another.

Not necessarily, it just wouldn't be anywhere close to a 1:1 ratio.

The trouble us we all still play the class and buy their black lion goods. The only winning move is not to play.

No, because they need to fix existing mechanics, not add new ones.

I thought it was sort of funny that people actually could get up in arms about some stairs. First world problems and all that. But then I saw the screenshots and I'm a little lost for words. I guess someone's developer tools don't have a clone with offset feature... Hey ANet I could code you one if you're so hard up that you couldn't spare a lowly tools dev whilst everyone works on remonetizing gathering tools :P

> @"Exalted Quality.8534" said:

> E X P O S E D...LOL

>

> Since I main rev, the removal of quickness for the purposes of gathering was legitimately the most annoying thing about the IO nerf.

>

> It was completely unecessary from a balancing perspective and just drove revs further down in the dumpster tier. This glyph trash isn’t suprising. Nerf on demand quickness on revs so we can sell more keys...seems logical.

>

> Prove us wrong ANET. Split IO for pve and give us quickness back or we will keep thinking you are greedy, rev-hating bastards.

I don't think they hate Revs so much as they wish the class had never happened in the first place. They gave us that joke of a "legend" Kalla and thought that would definitely make us leave for a manlier profession, but nope, we're still here twiddling our thumbs all awkward like. So then I guess their metrics said Revs like to pick flowers and cut stone, so they took the hammer to that as well.

We are the profession equivalent of perpetually friend zoned.

Plz ANet, we'd make you happy if only you gave us the chance!

No, they are obtained as a reward from raiding. There are plenty of other skins to obtain in the game, you can't have them all if you are not prepared to play the entire game. No ifs, no buts, don't throw your toys out of the entitlement pram. I don't raid, but I do play SAB like a mofo. If motos red and blue infusions were available to everyone with enough bauble bubbles, I'd be miffed too. Tl;dr: You don't deserve the reward if you don't want to do the challenge.

Only ever used it in WvW / PvE for a last hurrah to try and get whatever killed me. I've never, in all my years playing, ever rallied from the skill when it was untraited. It *did* work when traited, but that's a very niche situation to find yourself in - it's better to get a trait that doesn't require you to f'up before you can use it.

Rev, which is sadly also my main. I switched to it when it came out with HoT and it was a complete niiiiightmare to level. I really enjoyed the idea of being a hybrid buff-bot and damage dealer though, so I played power Rev a lot in Fractals and even a bit of Ventari in WvW for funsies. However, after all this time it still feels like a one trick Pony in that the builds which DO work appear to be abberations. It's as if in order to play Rev, one must actively find skill and stat combinations that ANet forgot to nerf. All of this would still not push me to vote Rev as the worst class were it not for the uninspired, boring, badly designed and outright odd choice for expansion legend - Kalla. Now Renegade, this right here, is exactly how not to design an Elite spec! Easily killed buff fountains? Check. Costly skills? Check. Craptacular secondary weapon? Deffers. Confusing play style? Kinda. Awful lore and a legend who isn't... Legendary? We have an ace in the hole, folks.

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> tl;dr sure, Viper's still works, if for no other reason than the current "optimum" builds are probably 20-50% more effective than anyone needs for daily fractals. Viper's remains a go-to prefix for most condi builds (and when it's not, it's a strong alternative)

>

> ****

> Some specifics, the short of which is that DT prefers power builds for fractals and Snow Crows likes condi builds just fine for raids.

>

> [DT's builds include](https://discretize.eu/builds)

> * Meta with two power chronos (one support, one hybrid), power spellbreaker, power weaver, & minstrel/cleric druid. This is mean for the fastest possible clearing times, so it's not _designed_ for the vast majority of players.

> * Five "great" builds, that are equally four power + a power druid. These are designed for skilled players, who aren't rushing. Total theoretical DPS: ~150k

> * Five "good" builds that are all condi & I think that four will be viper's (there's also a power DD build). Collectively the five condi builds do ~150k DPS.

>

> Their meta builds are designed to be synergistic with each other, while the great and good ones aren't and assume the party is getting the necessary buffs from _somewhere_. That's a primary reason that the power builds get "great" while the condi ones get "good."

>

> [snow Crows](https://snowcrows.com/builds/) doesn't have their fractal builds up yet. For raids, their DPS builds are:

> * All power: elementalist

> * All condi: necro

> * Mixed: mesmer (one condi, not preferred), thief (one condi, preferred), ranger (two condi), engineer (one of each), warrior (one condi, preferred), guardian (one condi, preferred), revenant (one of each).

>

> Their benchmarks include great DPS on large targets from a couple of condi builds (berserker and renegade) and on small target, the list is a mix.

Thanks, that's pretty helpful. I'll just continue to run Viper's for now as I've only just entered T4, so having a "good" build is fine as long as I'm not just trying to phone it in.

> @"Ardenwolfe.8590" said:

> Yes, the first half isn't the issue if you're somewhat good at jumping puzzles. The problem is the second half where you're the bee dog. The controls are clunky. The response feels delayed. And the power boosts are positioned oddly where you can fly through them, but somehow miss them too.

>

> Finally, the change from two arches to one with the clouds can cause a lot of frustration in the bee dog form.

When I was doing trib mode in SAB one thing I noticed was how framerate dependent the game is. I routinely missed jumps and fell off ledges until I turned off every graphical effect and got a smooth 60fps. At the time, I was running on a toaster instead of an actual GPU, but if your graphics hardware is a little long in the tooth, you might be surprised at how much of a difference the fps boost makes to your timing.

Hmm this sounds interesting, I didn't realise there were more cool things added to SAB this year. Is it relatively easy like tribulation mode, or is it moderately difficult?

OP deserves a thumbs up for simply posting a PvP video from the perspective of a Rev. I reckon the Rev forums ought to be just about the nicest profession sub forum (to other players, that is) on account of everyone being the equivalent of a sick puppy that gets kicked in its cute little puppy teeth with each patch.

Hmm weak even on bosses? How long does it take condition builds to ramp up their dps? I suppose I ought to just give it a go but if it's just horrid, then I may as well wait for the inevitable reversal of the balance pendulum. It took me ages to farm my Viper's gear and I don't fancy playing power Rev anymore, it's the only build I ever played on Rev before Renegade got released.

I've been away for a while, and haven't played since the "condition rework" / when sword 4 got changed. Are Viper's stats still the way to go for PvE fractals? I took a look at MetaBattle and they seem to suggest so, buut it's MetaBattle, so it could be rubbish for all they know. Answers on a postcard!